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Peter's plan

Chapter 24

"So, that was… nice."

MJ's lips are soft and amazing against his, and Peter is acting on pure instinct. One of his hand goes to her waist, while the other moves up to cup her cheek, and from his overly sensitive fingertips he even feels the quickening of her pulse induced by his gesture. He's never felt more alive than this very instant. MJ's left hand moves to the back of his neck, while her right hand now rests on his chest. He wonders if she can feel his pounding heart. Her fingers grasp at his hair like she wants to pull him closer, and Peter definitely gets that. He wants to be closer to her too, impossibly closer. He's burning with so much life, so much energy, it's like nothing he's ever felt before.

They eventually have to stop kissing to gasp for air – well, Peter would have been able to hold longer, but eh, he's not complaining. He opens his eyes to meet MJ's, and his heart jumps in his chest. He lets his hand slide from her cheek alongside the curve of her neck, then her shoulder, and relishes in the way she slightly shivers under his touch. Her eyes are bright, her cheeks flushed, and it takes his breath away. She lets both her arms fall back at her sides and takes a shaky inspiration, closing her eyes for a second.

"So, that was… nice," she breathes out, pinching her lips in a thin line, and Peter chuckles. He watches in delight as her cheeks flush even more, and suddenly it strikes him: she's flustered. From kissing him. He did that. Since when has his life become that amazing?

"Just nice?" he half-pouts, half-teases. "I mean, it kind of looks like you–"

"Oh shut up," MJ cuts him, rolling her eyes. Then she does something he did not expect at all: she kisses him again. It's kind of a sloppy one, this time. Her lips are slightly parted, and his bottom lip gets trapped in between them, and for some reason it instantly turns his brain into jelly. He vaguely thinks to himself this is the best way he's ever been told to shut up, then she moves away and he opens his eyes to meet her self-satisfied ones.

He feels his cheeks flush under her gaze, and really he shouldn't be surprised at how quickly she turned the tables on him, he thinks. Now he's the flustered one. Oh well. He rubs the back of his neck with a breathless chuckle. "Um, so yeah, feel free to do that whenever you want," he tells her with a sheepish smile, and MJ actually looks bemused for a second. Peter watches in awe as her lips form a surprised o, like she didn't expect him to say something like that at all, and his heart jumps in his chest.

She recovers fairly quickly and smirks at him. "What? Tell you to shut up?" she retorts, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I mean, coupled with, with that," – he gestures to her lips then his, thinking to himself why on earth can't he just say kiss, what is he, an 8 year-old? – "I mean, yeah it's, yeah. Plus it's fairly effective."

MJ chuckles lightly, poking him playfully in the side, and Peter wonders if he's ever been this happy before or not. He's pretty sure he hasn't. "Alright, I'll keep that in mind," she tells him with a smirk, that quickly morphs into a beautiful grin as they stare at each other. Peter mouths a 'cool' and she chuckles again, and it's like his heart is pretty much melting by then.

"Um, guys?"

They turn to see Ned who's staring at them with a small smile. Peter forces himself not to smile to widely at him, but it's not that easy. "Sorry we uh, Harrington says we have to go."

"Oh, okay."

MJ takes a step back, and Peter feels a little cheesy because of it but he instantly misses her proximity. He glances at her, studying her as she still looks at Ned, then his eyes wander down to the black Dahlia necklace around her neck and he smiles. He still cannot believe she likes it. She's wearing it, and it's honestly amazing.

Now he's thinking about what she gave him though. He's still in shock. She was so nervous. Her hands were trembling, he could hear the flutter of her heart above the rumbling of his panicked thoughts when she'd handed him the drawing. It's really good. The drawing. Peter already knew MJ was talented, but he hadn't known just how much, he thinks. It was honestly like a punch in the gut, seeing it, realizing what it was, what it meant.

When he thinks about it now, maybe it actually makes a lot of sense, maybe he should have seen this coming. Yeah, he really should have seen it coming. Oh God, he really is bad at this whole secret identity thing, isn't he? They kind of went off track when MJ basically confessed that she likes him – he's definitely not complaining – but he thinks he has a few questions to ask her, next time they're alone. Oh wow, next time they're alone maybe there will be more kissing.

Alright, maybe more kissing, but first questions about how she figured it all out. If people left and right start figuring out that he's Spider-Man, he's done. Not that MJ is people, nope, not at all. She's one of the smartest, most perceptive person he's ever met. It makes sense that she figured it out, especially since she's interested in him – oh wow that's so awesome. He wonders if she did like a background check on him or something. That would make sense too. Maybe she can help him get better at that part of the superhero thingy. Oh, that'd be amazing. Another member for Team Spidey, Ned is gonna be thrilled. Wow, he needs to tell Ned. So many things to do, when really all his brain seems to be able to focus on right now is how amazing it was to kiss MJ.

"Yeah we lost him."

Peter blinks his thoughts away and realizes he might have been staring into the void for a while. Oops. MJ smirks at him, and his heart rate picks up. Ned is standing next to her with a worried frown, and Peter makes a face. "Sorry, I was –"

"Reminiscing already, dork?" MJ teases, and his stupid cheeks flush at that. She pokes him in the side, her eyes filled with amusement, and he pouts. She chuckles, shaking her head with a fond expression. "Cute." And then just like that she's walking away without a look back, towards the other side where the elevators are. Peter watches her leave, and he cannot help his goofy smile at that. His life really took a very nice turn all of a sudden. That's nice.

"Yikes."

Peter turns to his best friend and grins. "Yeah."

"Damn, I would never have thought you guys would be so… yikes." Ned shakes his head with feign disgust, but his eyes are smiling and Peter knows he's also deeply happy for him. It's nice. Ned's awesome. He nudges him in the ribs with a smirk, and his best friend rolls his eyes playfully. They follow MJ toward the elevators, and Peter realizes that maybe right now is the best moment to actually tell Ned about the whole Spider-Man thing with MJ. He doesn't want to wait to be back in their room at the hotel.

"So um, MJ knows," he tells him in a whisper, looking around to make sure no one is paying them attention. The rest of their group is standing in front of the elevators, chatting excitedly. MJ is talking with Betty, who seems pretty excited about something, while MJ looks like she's trying to hold back her smile. His heart jumps happily in his chest at this sight. Damn, he's so head over heels for her, it's actually crazy.

"That you like her?" Ned deadpans, and Peter turns his attention back to his best friend, "yeah I figured that much from seeing you two smooching faces."

Damn it, I said no more thinking about kisses! Come on, focus. "No Ned I mean, she knows that I'm, you know" – he lowers his voice even more – "Spider-Man."

"You told her?!"

So much for being discreet. Maybe that's how MJ figured it all out. Ned and himself being stupid idiots and talking about it at school. Oh god that's very likely now that he thinks about it. "Ned!" he whisper-shouts, and Ned has the decency to look contrite.

"Oops."

"He didn't tell me, I figured it out."

Peter looks up, and sure enough MJ is looking at them with a smirk now, leaning on the wall besides the first elevator. Betty glances at her curiously, then at Peter and Ned, and asks, the curiosity very obvious in her voice: "What did you figure out?"

"That um," MJ hesitates, her unsure eyes meeting his, and Peter rushes to her rescue without thinking:

"That I like her." He blushes a little at his own words, but from MJ's small relieved smile, he thinks it's worth it. Ned and him stop next to the two girls, and Peter tries to ignore the fact that half their class stopped talking to listen, including Mr Dell and Mr Harrington. Brad is frowning deeply, arms crossed over his chest, intently ignoring them but Peter knows he's listening as well. Oh well, better this than them figuring out that he's Spider-Man, right?

"Oh Peter sweetie," Betty smiles fondly, and he feels his cheeks flush even more, "everyone knows that."

"Yeah Parker you suck at keeping secrets," Flash perks in, and of course he's still live-streaming. It's okay, the camera is never not facing Flash's face, he's too fond of himself for that, but Peter still groans unhappily though.

"Yeah whatever."

He's saved by the ding of the elevator, and by Mr Harrington who rushes them in as soon as the new group of tourists gets out. Peter looks around one last time, committing the place to memory, then walks inside the elevator behind MJ. They stand next to each other in the back, and Peter almost jumps when he feels her link her fingers with his. She's not looking at him but at the view as the elevator slowly goes down, and she's obviously biting down her smile and he gets a little distracted again. Oops. Is this what it's gonna be like all the time now? Oh but who is he kidding really, he was already getting distracted by her lips even before kissing her became a wonderful possibility. That's so nice.

The next couple of hours are spent walking around the Eiffel tower and the Champs de Mars, the large park at the tower's feet. The weather is warm, and it actually feels like a real vacation all of a sudden. But maybe that's just because Peter isn't as stressed out as he was before. Don't get him wrong, he's still over analyzing everything that MJ does – like how she doesn't hold his hand much but sometimes brushes her fingers on the back of his hand while they walk, or how when their gazes meet she still looks away a little hastily, but now with a small happy smile that turns Peter's brain into jelly every time it happens.

They hang out with Ned and Betty, and Ned excitedly mouths 'double date' to Peter at least six times. He hears Zoha tell MJ that she thinks Peter and her are cute together, and he tries not to smile too much when he sees her cheeks flush a little at that. They eat in a small restaurant, some delicious French cuisine – Peter feels very fancy when he says that, and it makes MJ snorts. They're sitting next to each other, very close, and at some point their knees bump, and she doesn't move hers away. And it's awesome. It's a little difficult to focus on the discussion though, as Peter cannot seem to think about anything else but kissing her again.

They head back to the hotel at around 9:30, and everyone is tired. It's late though so luckily the subway is a little less crowded than it was before. MJ still chooses to stand, and Peter stands next to her without a question. He thinks his heart is about to fly out of his chest when she leans her shoulder against his shoulder a little. She's not looking at him, pretending like nothing major is going on right now, just like she did in the elevator when she held his hand, but Peter knows she's as much excited as he is about it. He can hear the sharpness of her inspirations every now and then, and he can see the happy glimmer in her eyes in the reflection on the window.

And honestly, everything is amazing, he thinks.